


Prehistoric Park Series Two

by Merlin Missy (mtgat)



Category: Prehistoric Park
Genre: Conservation, Gen, Murphy's Law, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-19
Updated: 2013-12-19
Packaged: 2018-01-05 03:41:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1089195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mtgat/pseuds/Merlin%20Missy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The second series of the award-winning documentary programme.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Prehistoric Park Series Two

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tetsubinatu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tetsubinatu/gifts).



> With thanks to my beta, DW.

The exciting time-travelling, animal-rescuing programme is back with all new episodes. Set three years after the first series, regulars Nigel Marven (Himself), Park Keeper Bob (Rod Arthur), and Vet Suzanne (Suzanne McNabb) return for more adventures. 

**Episode 2.1: Hynerpeton**

Nigel goes back to the Devonian period, around 360 million years ago, in search of the early amphibian Hynerpeton. Meanwhile, back at the park, Suzanne is getting ready for the birth of a new park resident: Martha the Mammoth is carrying a calf cloned from a mummified mammoth's remains, and she's nearly due. As Nigel dodges giant proto-sharks and gets a bite from the Hynerpeton he captures, Bob readies a maternity pen (with some, erm, "help" from the Ornithomimus), and Suzanne helps her two-tonne patient give birth to a baby the size of a Shetland pony.

Quotes:

Nigel: In this period, the oxygen content of the Earth was much lower than it is today. Fortunately, we've brought oxygen masks. (He dons a mask.) (Muffled.) And off we go!

Suzanne: I've delivered elephant calves before, and this isn't our first birth at Prehistoric Park. But it's still quite exciting.  
Mammoth: (makes noise)  
Suzanne: And no one is more excited than Martha. (Pets her.)

Bob: I originally wanted to set up the Hynerpeton in the swamp, but his skin is so delicate, I can't keep him with any of the other animals. I'm considering a wading pool.

 _New Park Residents:_  
Rygel, the Hynerpeton  
Martin, the mammoth calf

 

**Episode 2.2: Dodo**

Against Bob's advice, Nigel travels to the near past. Going to the early 16th Century, he travels to the island of Mauritius in search of the dodo. At the park, Martha's new baby Martin is settling in. Suzanne worries that the mother mammoth isn't nurturing her calf, but the matriarch of the elephant herd coaches her. Bob fields a call from the primary benefactor of Prehistoric Park, private philanthropist Mr. S., who wants to know how Martin is getting on. The researchers who helped clone him are asking questions. Nigel brings back not one pair of dodos, but an entire flock as well as several Rodrigues Solitaires, leaving Bob to figure out where the birds are going to live.

Quotes:

Suzanne: One good thing, at least I'm calling it good, is that Martha isn't letting me near Martin. I'd like to take measurements to see if he's thriving. She's protective. That makes me hopeful.

Nigel: While sailors visited the island from time to time, Mauritius had no native human population. These gentle creatures had no natural predators. (He reaches out his hand to pet a perfectly tame dodo.) Less than a century after the island's discovery, they were hunted to death.

Bob: I've researched the little we know about these animals. For such a recently extinct species, we don't even know for certain what they looked like. (He shows the drawing from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.) Fortunately, when Nigel brings one home, I'll be able to study it up close and get a better feel for the habitat we'll want.

 _New Park Residents:_  
Many, many dodos  
Six Rodrigues Solitaires

 

**Episode 2.3: Bugs from Carboniferous**

Nigel goes back to the Carboniferous period, in search of more insects for the Bug House. He returns with more than he bargained for (not for the first time) as a deadly insect, not seen before in the fossil record, comes back with him. The bug stings Bob, who goes into shock from the venom, and only Suzanne's quick thinking saves his life. The private company which cloned Martin are asking for a tour of the park. Unfortunately, they arrive just as Bob is being carried away to hospital.

Quotes:

Nigel: More than half of all known living organisms today are insects, with almost ten million different species. They've followed us all the way through our own evolution for 400 million years.  
Bob: It's like that old saying. God must be very fond of beetles, eh?  
Nigel: Not just fond of, but a huge fan of.  
Bob: My wife's the same way. She still wears black on the anniversary of John Lennon's death.

Suzanne: Working at Prehistoric Park, you never know what a bite or sting will bring. We've got anti-venom on hand for almost every animal the workers or the other animals might run into. Bob will be in hospital and then at home for a couple of weeks until he's made a full recovery. It could have been a lot worse.

 _New Park Residents:_  
Ringo, beetle (to be classified)  
Flying Mayfly

 

**Episode 2.4: Pteranodon**

With Bob on sick leave, Nigel's chomping at the bit to go back into the field. From his bed, Bob cautions him not to do anything silly. The park is being audited for safety issues, as well as for the best interests of the animals. Prehistoric Park has come under scrutiny by the government of the country which claims sovereignty over their island preserve, and a close call with the elephant herd leads to questions about Martin's safety in the park with his mother. Suzanne is left to field the hard questions as Nigel goes off on his own, back to the Cretaceous period 85 million years ago. There, he observes and tracks a pteranodon, eventually coaxing one to follow him home through the time tunnel right in front of the astonished auditors, who previously believed the animals at the park were all clones like Martin.

Quotes:

Bob: Nigel, this is serious. This is worse than T-Rex breaking out of the paddock serious. They're _auditors_.

Suzanne: (to the auditors) We've had fantastic luck here at Prehistoric Park. I shouldn't say luck, really. It's all down to the hard work Bob and his team have done, keeping this place safe.  
Mrs. Maples: Have you ever had any kind of animal escapes here?  
Suzanne: (clearly uncomfortable) Not counting the Titanosaurs, we've only had the one small trouble.  
(The Titanosaurs choose this moment to thunder by as a herd.)  
Mrs. Maples: I think perhaps we need to count the Titanosaurs.

Nigel: Now she is a beauty, isn't she? Four metre wingspan and a svelte forty kilo body. Watch her fly.  
(Camera pans up, indicating Nigel took the cameraman with him when he ran away from home.) We know from studying the fossils they left behind that pteranodons exhibited sexual dimorphism, with the males almost twice the size of the females and possessing dramatic crests. We don't know if the crests were for attracting a mate or frightening off competitors.

 _New Park Residents:_  
Peggy Sue, the pteranodon

 

**Episode 2.5: The Return of the Tasmanian Tiger**

Nigel's interest in conservation began when he was a boy, hearing about the last Thylacine, or Tasmanian Tiger. Emboldened by his recent visit to the near past to save the dodo, he risks everything for an even closer gambit: bringing back the Thylacine. Joining him on the mission is Saba, whose expertise with large carnivores is going to come in very handy. Bob is still leery of the Bug House and Ringo the Beetle, and he's not so sure about bringing back another carnivore. He studies the history of the Thylacines in order to get an appropriate habitat together. Suzanne is doing studying of her own, trying to track down information about Mr. S., the park's main benefactor, who struck a deal with the cloning researchers to allow Martin to stay. No studying could have prepared the team for the worst: Nigel and Saba's equipment are stolen in Tasmania by two people who see them. Worse, they quickly steal a port from this end of the time tunnel and escape! Now Nigel and Saba are trapped in 1910, and time-travel is in the hands of two reckless strangers.

Quotes:

Nigel: The Tasmanian Tigers used to live through Australia and Tasmania. The Tigers went extinct on the mainland right around the time of the British arrival, but they held onto life here in Tasmania, until they were driven to extinction in 1936. The last known Thylacine died in captivity in Hobart Zoo. (Video rolls of the last Thylacine.)  
Saba: We know just enough about these creatures and their habitat to be sure humans killed them, and now humans will bring them back.

Suzanne: The auditors sent their report. They're allowing Martin and Martha to stay with us here at the park.  
Bob: Finally, some good news!

Nigel: Wait, who's that? Wait. Stop!

 _New Park Residents:_  
None

 

**Episode 2.6: Time After Time**

The two thieves, Roger and Harry Stevens, find Nigel's backup video camera. It is implied it's taken them a number of tries to figure out how everything works, but Harry seems to sort out modern technology astonishingly fast. They begin popping in and out of time, without regard to the consequences. Nigel, making the best of a bad situation, uses the battery life left in the camera to document a small family of Thylacines, and Saba treats one of the joeys in the family, removing a bullet from its leg. Meanwhile, Bob and Suzanne are frantically working on a way to bring Nigel and Saba home. They have a backup time tunnel, the prototype equipment used when the Prehistoric Park Project was first commissioned. But unless they know for sure where and when to go, they'll be looking for a needle in a haystack. Fortunately, help arrives from a very unexpected source: the benefactor of Prehistoric Park arrives by helicopter. The mysterious Mr. S., billionaire and philanthropist, has been funding the project since its inception, including the plans for the original time tunnel. His grandfather was Harold Stevens, and Mr. S. promises he was sorry for all the trouble he and Uncle Roger caused. With his help, they set up the second time tunnel, and Mr. S., Bob, and Suzanne travel back to 1910 Tasmania to rescue Nigel and Saba, as well as the Thylacine family. When they all return home, it's to another discovery. The "all the trouble" referred to the prank Roger and Harry pulled during their time with the stolen equipment. Plesiosaurs have been brought forward in time and dropped in lakes around the world, almost certainly giving rise to the various lake monster myths. Prehistoric Park has a much bigger job ahead of it now, not only caring for the animals they've rescued, but also teaching astonished naturalists around the world how best to care for Nessie and all her new friends.

Quotes:

Nigel: We've got eight hours left of battery life on this camera. If we can't save these gorgeous animals, we can document their lives.  
Saba: But in case this is found by someone with a time tunnel, we're in southern Tasmania, it's August twenty-third, 1910. Come fetch us, yeah?

Harry: … other button plays a film. I wonder what this one does? (Extreme close-up of Roger's nostrils.)

Suzanne: I've never had the chance to travel back with Nigel on any of his retrievals. I'm not happy with the reason, but I have to say, this is very exciting!  
Bob: You go on with being excited. I never signed on for travelling in time myself.  
Nigel: (Approaches them as the camera shakes) But you're a natural at it, mate. It's good to see you both.

 _New Park Residents:_  
Petunia and Peter, and joeys Rosy and Richard, thylacines


End file.
